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Wednesday, 7 November 2012

And the winner is...

A couple of weeks ago, an obscure grammatical question was posed by Alan on his blog Archers of Okcular. It was the sort of question that only pedants or those with too much time on their hands would be able to answer and (I'm not proud of myself) I was able to supply the solution immediately. Alan very generously offered his book or a T-shirt as a prize. I went for the book. "Okçular Village - A Guide " turned up in my mail box yesterday and I've already read all 112 pages. Hats off to you Alan, this is a great read. The Kocadere Valley, where Okçular is sited, was also threatened by a cement company's mine almost exactly 10 years after our village was similarly attacked and Alan, putting himself in considerable personal discomfort if not outright danger, played the major roll in fighting off the developers and ensuring that his valley gained special protected status. I assume the idea to write this book was generated by the huge relief one feels when one's home is saved from the teeth of commercial monsters. Divided into 4 sections, the handy pocket sized volume gives a general history of the area, the people, walks and a detailed description of the flora and fauna. I was delighted to read the life stories of oldest inhabitants, some of whom were born before the Republic of Turkey existed. The history of the man in the field in 20th century Turkey is sadly under-recorded and this is a welcome historical resource.

Even though I live 3 hours drive away, the lists of birds, plants and reptiles will come in very handy as I'm travelling around. I also now have a very good incentive to get in the car and drive down Dalyan way and try out some of the walks.
The attachment Alan feels to his adoptive home and neighbours shines through in this book and Alan donates all the income from sales to projects that improve the lives of the villagers.
This Okcular Book Bazaar page gives much more information on the scope of the enterprise and has a mail order link.

Thanks, Annie. We are completely confident that this book is as wonderful as you describe, knowing as we do how this passion for Okçular shines through in Alan's blog. We will definitely try to make up for this deficit in our reading.

. . but you give me too much credit! There's no doubt J and I were able to act as a catalyst in certain respects, but the villagers and some inspired locals who understood how the 'system' works here were the real heroes. I rather think that as the only really active foreigners we acted as a lightning rod and drew the villains away - they took their eye off the ball and this bought time for actions on our side to take effect.Won't ask you to change anything though, feeling too smug for that :-)

Well, some 4-5 years ago, I happened to see this magnificent book on the desk of a local grocery shop, piled up.. asking what the book about, grocer said it is about the area of Dalyan and was for sale.. I grabbed one.. as some other commenter have said, drank it up, breathlessly.. Great great work.. very valuable.. Of course, I had meet these guys, Alan and J.. meet and make friends.. luckily again, I met them somewhere in Dalyan.. and since than, its my pleasure and privilige.. Hugs Alan.. my very very dear friend.. Youve done a wonderful job.. as you always do...

I think I had to pay for my copy (or did I? Alan will know). Anyway, as you know I'm not really into all this trekking malarky so I donated it to a Bodrum Belle who I know loves to wander up hill and down dale.

About Me

In early 1982 I boarded a Turkish Kibris flight to Izmir - my destination was a 29 foot sloop in Bodrum's new marina. At 22, my belongings fitted into a worse for wear sailing holdall. In 2012 I made a similar journey from Heathrow to Bodrum. Thirty years have passed and Bodrum has changed. There are plenty of very good blogs detailing the ex-pat journey through modern Turkey. The aim of this one is to catch sight of past Turkey through my experience of re-settling in modern Bodrum.